After falling behind challenger John James in the race for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, Democratic incumbent Gary Peters has taken the tiniest of leads while the last of the ballots are being counted.
With 98% of the votes in, the Associated Press says Peters has 49.1% of the vote to James’ 49%. Fewer than 6.000 votes separate the two out of more than 5.2 million votes cast.
Peters had 2,607,590 votes to James’ 2,601,926.
The race was viewed by political experts as the Republican party’s second best opportunity to flip a seat – after Alabama Senator Doug Jones. Jones lost to the former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.
While Peters maintained a consistent lead in pre-election polling, James’ led from the outset of the ballot counting, running up a substantial lead. The lead shrank little by little as some of the final votes were added, giving Peters the smallest of edges.
Given the tight race, no news organization has declared either candidate a winner – and there are still 2% of the votes to be counted. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says she hopes to have the initial and unofficial count completed on Wednesday afternoon.
Stay tuned to 6 News for updates on this race.
